Click the following links to advance to the next chapter in Christa's story:

The Childhood Years
The New York City Years
Let’s Go for Broke
The Los Angeles Years
The Murder
The Original Investigation
The Cold Case Investigation
My Investigation
How You Can Help

MY INVESTIGATION

There are tidbits of information I’ve uncovered that are spread throughout each section of Christa’s story on this site. There is much information I’ve uncovered that I cannot yet share, but here are a few details I feel comfortable making public:

SANDY SMITH

Sandy Smith lived in the house on 9020 Lloyd Place. In the early morning hours of February 12, 1977, Christa’s body was found outside of the house partially tucked under a car. I managed to find Sandy and asked him a few questions. Here’s the summary of what he had to share with me:

He worked for a talent agency called World Wide Artists in their theatrical division. Contrary to reports over the decades, he was not Christa’s agent.
Sandy’s guest spots on Starsky & Hutch were a bit of a fluke - he wasn’t an actor. He was good friends with the producer and director of the episodes.
He had frequent parties at his house. “People were coming in and out of my house all the time,” he said. He did have a gathering at his house earlier that night on February 11. But he hadn’t slept in two or three days, was exhausted, and cleared his house early. He retreated to bed. He says he does not recall Stephanie and Christa calling him that night asking him to join them, but he said it was possible.
We know of four people who were at Sandy’s house for the party on the 11th: Adrian Justin Carr, Adrian W. Holmes, and Mark and Jaime Lindsay. Police reports say that these four met at Sandy’s for a time, and then left together to go to another party. We are actively tracking three of these people and have yet to find their whereabouts. The fourth - Mark Lindsay - is the popular front man for Paul Revere and the Raiders.
Sandy claims that Christa was not at his house earlier that night during his party.
The car where Christa’s body was found belonged to Sandy’s live-in girlfriend Nancy. According to Sandy, she left her car parked there, but was not at his house that night.
Sandy was a friend to Thurman Brooms, the man who discovered Christa’s body around 1:30 am that morning. Brooms came knocking on Sandy’s door later that morning (hours after Christa’s murder and following his own questioning at the police station). Sandy answered and Thurman told him about the murder, showed him the spot where it occurred beside his house (the fire department had already washed away the blood from the street), and gave him the police investigator’s card that they had stuck in his door.
Sandy says he was fast asleep and difficult to wake. When the murder took place, and the cops tried several times to knock on Sandy’s door, he did not wake up.
Once he saw Thurman and was handed the card, he called the LASD. They arrived at his home to question him, and they proceeded to request that he identify the body. Even though he made it clear that he hardly knew her, he positively identified the body as Christa.

DAVID STEIN & PAMELA

There is a second murder that occurred in the Rudy/Blair/Christa circle. Our musician source first made us aware of it. As he recalled, a young groupie named Pamela used to be a constant at Rudy’s house/drug den. Around the time that Christa was murdered, Pamela was found hanging in her apartment under suspicious circumstances.

”Pamela lived and was found dead in her apartment down the street from the Rainbow Room on Sunset Blvd.,” our source recalled.

Christa shared her last apartment with a roommate named Stephanie. Their apartment was located at 949 N. Larrabee Street. Stephanie recalled that Christa had befriended a neighbor who lived above them. The two would hang out and chat regularly. The neighbor’s name? Pamela.

Of course, this could be a coincidence. After all, there was more than one Pamela living in L.A. at the time.

But the Rainbow Room is a 7-minute walk across the street from Christa’s apartment building on Larrabee Street.

Then there’s the mystery of a man named David Stein. When we spoke with Stephanie, she told us that she met Christa through a gentleman named David Stein. Stein worked in some capacity with the international financier Bernie Cornfeld.

In a 2013 comment found on Steven Thompson’s blog, a commenter with the screen name justintime9122 wrote the following:

”Did anyone talk to David Stein ? He knew her better than anyone. Knew where she was on most days and who she talked to and what she was up to. Interesting thing also Pamala another girlfriend of his was murdered and was never solved! Did anyone ever put these two murders together? Both women knew the same people and lived the same lifestyles! Interesting huh ???”

We have not been able to locate the owner of this screen name for further information.

PATTY COLLINS

We shared the information we uncovered about Patty in a previous chapter of this website. She remains a key point of interest in this case as she disappeared at the time of Christa’s murder. We know from the recollections of our music source that she had parents who lived west of Los Angeles. It stands to reason that if she disappeared, her parents would have filed a missing persons claim. We continue to seek out this evidence. So far, detectives have been unsuccessful in tracking down the correct Patty Collins.

At the conclusion of the 2008 48 Hours episode on Christa, detectives located a person they believed was Patty Collins. This Patty was a meth addict who lived in squalor in Montana. She claimed to have never lived in Los Angeles, yet her sister told detectives she was lying. According to the sister, she did live in L.A. in the 70’s, and called her parents to bring her home because she found herself in a lot of trouble. Regardless, the DNA from this Patty Collins did not match what was tested under Christa’s fingernails.

NEWLY UNCOVERED RUMOR

In an interview with true crime author Fred Rosen, actor George Hamilton claimed he was introduced to Christa through their mutual friend Gray Frederickson, the high-profile producer of The Godfather. We reached out to Gray and he responded as follows: “It was along time ago and I don’t remember much. I think we had a couple of dates. I heard a drug dealer killed the wrong Christa because she lived on the same street.”

SHEILA GREEN

in the blog section of the website, we provide early newspaper reports of Christa’s murder. In each article, they tie Christa’s murder with another homicide that occurred on the same night five miles away. Sheila Green was 22 at the time she was stabbed to death off of Mulholland Drive. We contacted the LAPD (in whose jurisdiction Sheila’s body was discovered) to see if we could uncover evidence of a connection. A detective called us back with Sheila’s case folder and shared with us the following information:

- Sheila’s case remains unsolved, though they have the names of several potential suspects.
- Christa’s name is mentioned several times in Sheila’s report. Apparently, our hunch was right, and detectives in 1977 were attempting to uncover a connection as well.
- The circumstances surrounding Sheila’s murder are significantly different. She was a victim of a sexual assault in the moments before she was stabbed to death, and Christa wasn’t. She also led a much different life than Christa, and it seems unlikely that their paths ever crossed.
-None of the persons of interest in Christa’s case are listed as potential suspects in Sheila’s case.

There is a shred of good news regarding Sheila’s case. Because we placed Sheila’s case back on the radar of the LAPD, they are submitted items for DNA testing (something they haven’t yet attempted in her case). Hopefully, this might lead to a suspect match and resolution in her murder.

ILANA HARKAVI

Ms. Harkavi was at the beginnings of her career when she befriended Christa. In 1972, she founded the world-renowned beauty brand Il Makiage. She owned a salon in NYC, and this is where she first met Christa. “The first time she came in she wanted nail extensions,” Ms. Harkavi recalled. “We hit it off immediately.” A close friendship ensued. Christa requested that Ms. Harkavi serve as her makeup designer for Let’s Go for Broke.

Ms. Harvaki proceeded to work on the film during both the Haiti and Miami shoots. She lost touch with Christa when she moved from New York to Los Angeles in 1975. She could not recall a NY Post article published soon after Christa’s murder in which she is quoted as saying “I last saw her about six months ago when she visited New York. I could sense that she was sad.”

This return trip to New York could be important, because it might point to a meeting with Stuart Duncan after he had cut her off financially. We have also heard anecdotes about Stuart visiting Christa in her final months in Los Angeles.

Ms. Harkavi heard the news of Christa’s death through a phone call with Lennie. “She fell off a cliff,” he told her. “Drug-related.” No doubt, Lennie meant this figuratively - Christa finally went over the edge because of her drug connections - but Ms. Harkavi took it literally. It wasn’t until I spoke with her - 43 years later - that she realized the true nature of Christa’s death.

THE CORONER

We tracked down the coroner who performed Christa’s autopsy in 1977. Visit this page to read his insights into the crime.

SHAH OF IRAN

I am currently investigating another angle in Christa’s life involving the Shah of Iran. We have numerous accounts from Christa’s close friends and family members that she was intimate with the shah on several occasions when she was living in New York and as late as the summer of 1976. There have been rumors that several women like Christa were recruited by the CIA to provide information on the shah through these sexual encounters. I’m trying to find confirming documentation of this operation.

GEORGE FISHER

Fisher was a performer and a stunt coordinator for both the Haiti and Miami shoots of Let’s Go for Broke. He became close to Christa during this time. He even had dinner with Christa. Stuart Duncan and Christa’s father during the Haiti shoot.

During the Miami shoot, Christa wanted to buy a car with Stuart Duncan’s money. Having extensive experience with cars as a stunt driver, George offered his advice on which car she should purchase. He warned her against the car she had here eyes on - a 1973 xke Jaguar v12. “If you push it too hard, it will break down on you and the repair costs will be astronomical,” he warned. Nevertheless, Christa purchased the car. Sure enough, a couple of years later, the car did break down on her. She called George and asked him if he would like to purchase the broken car. He agreed, grabbed the pink slip from her, paid for repairs, and took the car as his own. He called her home not long after to check on her. Lenny Barrin answered her phone and informed him that Christa had been murdered.

George still owns Christa’s car to this day.

MORE TO COME……

Next chapter: How You Can Help